Garrus Vakarian
Garrus Vakarian is a Turian sniper and an investigator. He joined the crew of Commander Shepard, and is best known for his exploits with the other crew-members of the Normandy. Garrus recieved advanced millitary training at the age of 15, and was selected to be a Spectre, but chose to join C-Sec instead, just like his father. During Garrus' time with C-Sec he slowly became disillusioned with the law, and witnessed first hand how easilly justice can be defeated, eventually leading him to leave C-Sec. Garrus is very focused on the mission at hand and ensuring that justice is done, though his judgments can be harsh at times. He is also incredibly snarky, often having a sarcastic comment or joke for any situation. History Mass Effect Garrus Vakarian is first encountered on the Citadel before meeting the council. He speaks with Commander Shepard, Ash Williams and Kaiden Alenko about the events on Eden Prime, where he reveals he was investigating Saren, only to have his case sabotaged at every step, eventually leading to his boss, Executor Palin, to cancel his investigation. After their meeting, Garrus decides to continue his case, and follows one last lead to the Med-Clinic. Hearing this news from Harkin, Commander Shepard and his team go to help him, finding the Doctor threatened by hired thugs. Garrus takes advantage of Shepard's distraction to take down the thugs and rescue the doctor, after which he leaves C-Sec and joins Commander Shepard on the Normandy. He followed Shepard through his journies to Feros, the Artimis Tau cluster, Noveria and Virmire. During their travels, Garrus revealed to Shepard that one of his targets, a doctor who grew body parts out of his patients, often without pain-relievers, and cut the spare parts out when they were ready, selling them for a fortune on the black market. When Garrus and his team tracked down the Doctor- Dr. Saleon- he took off in a ship filled with hostages. When Garrus tried to bring down the ship, C-Sec interfered, refusing to let the hostages die, despite Garrus' warning their deaths would still be coming if Saleon escaped. After telling the tale to Shepard, he can decide to pursue Saleon, and allow Garrus to complete his mission personally. Upon their return to the Citadel, Garrus was either alongside Commander Shepard, confronting Saren or he was onboard the Normandy during it's attack on Soverign. Either way, the Turian survived and stayed with the Commander for his post-Saren adventures. Mass Effect 2 After Commander Shepard's death at the hands of the Collectors, Garrus drifted, no longer having anyone or any reason to keep him with the Normandy. Garrus eventually traveled to Omega, where he formed a sqaud to bring justice to the crime and gang violence- earning him the nickname Archangel. But one of his teammates, a fellow Turian named Sidonis betrayed his squad while Garrus was gone, resulting in all of their deaths. Soldiering on, he kept up the fight against crime, eventually uniting the three rival gangs- the Blue Suns, the Eclipse and the Blood Pack- to attack him together, at Freedom's Progress, a building he holed up at. Commander Shepard, reborn by Cerberus' Lazarus Project after two years of work, arrived at Omega, hoping to recruit the vigilante for his new crew to stop the collectors. He signed up as a freelancer merc and charged Freedom's Progress, where he quickly betrayed the other mercs and went to talk to Archangel, who revealed his true identity to his old friend. Shepard and Garrus were both surprised to see each other again, but their reunion was cut short, and the group was forced to fight off more mercenaries and robots. Eventually, the Blue Suns' gunship arrived and it's machine guns badly injured Garrus before Shepard shot it down. Dr. Chakwas did the best she could, but Garrus was left with terrible scarring on half his face from the incident. Shepard could later help Garrus track down Sidonis, where he can either let Garrus repay him for his betrayl or save Sidonis from the shot and teach Garrus a lesson about revenge. If Shepard keeps Garrus from killing him, Sidonis will turn himself in to C-Sec for the murder of 10 people. Garrus is also a romance option for female Shepards. Regardless, the Turian stayed with Shepard and his new Cerberus allies until they went through the Omega Relay, taking them into Collector space for their suicide mission. Garrus was one of the more effective possible squad-leaders for the mission, and his abilities and actions in the Collector Base were vital to the mission's completion. Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker The Shadow Broker's files on Garrus reveals that he has a sister, Solana Vakarian, and that his mother is extremley sick and Garrus is trying to fund her recovery. Due to the secret nature of his mission, Solana believes that Garrus is a slacker who hasn't done anything since he was canned at C-Sec, not relizing how important Garrus was in the war with the Reapers. He also hasn't activated a video chat with his sister since the incident on Omega. He also sends samples to various medical centers, and keeps a list of his kills on file. Mass Effect 3 After the events of the Suicide Mission, Garrus returned to the Turian home of Palaven, and followed Shepard's example, warning everyone who would listen that the coming of the Reapers was inevitable. Eventually, he was made the head of a new task force, though he felt this was done simply to shut him up. When the Reapers arrived, the Palaven forces held out longer than many others under direct attack- the powerful Turian navy held out against the Reaper's space forces, but the casualties and damages were still immense. When Commander Shepard was required to find the Turian Primarch for a committee to ally the races of the galaxy together, a shuttle was deployed from the Normandy to the Turian moon of Menae. Shepard, James Vega and Liara T'Soni quickly landed and became a major force on the battlefield, clearing out waves of Husks and repelling attacks from Reaper ground forces in order to complete their mission of finding the Primarch, only to discover that he had been killed earlier by the massive Reaper attack force. The Turian general was able to go through the lines to discover who the next in command for the position was while Shepard held the line to protect him, and brought in Garrus himself to aid in the mission. Victus, an excellent but unorthodox commander that Garrus had a personal respect for was to become the next Primarch, and the Turian Sniper was tasked with taking Shepard and Vega to his last known location to take him out of the fight. Once Victus was informed of his new rank, he hesitantly agreed to work with Shepard's plan for the better of his people, and joined the crew of the Normandy. When Shepard departed from Menae, Garrus rejoined the crew; bringing his classic routine of calibrations and sniping on the battlefield back to the team. Late into the Normandy's quest, Garrus invited Shepard to meet him on the Citadel during their downtime for one last night of fun before the coming storm. Disregarding all of the rules and regulations that had held him back as a C-Sec agents, he and Shepard took a taxi to one of the top rings on the Citadel, where the two had a playful shooting competition. While Shepard was the superior marksman, the player can choose to miss the final shot on purpose- prompting Garrus to shout out "I'm Garrus Vakarian, and this is now my favorite spot on the Citadel!" in joy, a reference to the Mass Effect 2 meme about Shepard's favorite store on the Citadel. When the Normandy made its final attack on Earth, backed by every fleet and organization Shepard had united over the course of the trilogy, Garrus followed his old Commander to the very end- standing among the ruins of London and giving out orders to the Turian forces there. He and Shepard had a final conversation about their long friendship, ending in Garrus giving Shepard a motivational speech to encourage the Commander in the final battle. Regardless of whether or not Vakarian was in the squad during the final mission, he was an active participant of the Battle for Earth, leading the entire Turian military on the ground and taking on numerous husks and Reaper troops. If Garrus is in the party, he will stay by Shepard's side until Harbinger destroys the Mako Tanks transporting them to the Conduit. If he survives the events of the Battle, he may be seen in the ending, where he is disembarking the Normandy on an unknown alien world after it crash lands. Behind the Scenes Garrus is a recurring fan favorite from Mass Effect, and is one of the series most iconic characters. He was one of the "poster" characters of Mass Effect, alongside Ashley Williams. Just like HK-47 and T3-M4 before him, he appeared on most of the advertising for the game, and is one of the squadmembers on the game's case. There is a well known bug on the PC version of the first game where, even on the higest possible graphics setting, Garrus' face is extremley low textured. Bioware knows about the bug, but they cannot fix it as the game's design would require a mult-gigabyte patch in order to fix. In between the first two Mass Effect games, a set of Mass Effect inspired Xbox Live Avatar Gear was released, including a recreation of Garrus' famous Kuwashii Visor, labeled "Garrus' Eye Piece". When the game was shown at E3 2006, Garrus was one of the party members, but he has gone through many revisions since then- including changed facial markings, modifications to his visor and the basic designs of his armor. He was also once able to equipt Turian Heavy Armor, but he is incapable of doing so in the final game. This was brought back in Mass Effect 2, where he does wear Turian Heavy Armor. Appearances * Mass Effect * Mass Effect 2 ** Mass Effect 2: Normandy Crash Site (appears in Flashbacks) ** Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker * Mass Effect 3 ** Mass Effect 3: Citadel Category:Characters Category:Party Member Category:Alien Category:Turian Category:Bioware Category:RPG